A power distribution system should be supervised and monitored because disturbances can result in partial compromise or even total failure of the system. Specifically, an operator should be made aware of any outages within the system in order to conduct appropriate measures. Therefore, the system is supervised at least partially by an operator, and at times in conjunction with a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) component. For human supervision the state of the system is displayed on a screen or a similar viewing device as part of a graphical user interface.
Known power distribution systems can include a large number of sensor or input data locations where data values are collected. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) units are used in distribution management systems of large buildings, large ships, or low-voltage DC distribution systems for data centers. In these units, some processes, parameters or local statuses can be supervised automatically. In addition, human supervision should be implemented for proper operation of the system. However, the operator can be physically unable to analyze every data location and the data values received from respective locations. For two-dimensional systems, it is known to interpolate the data values of neighboring data locations and to visualize the original data and the interpolated values e.g., by areal color coding or shading, or by iso-lines or contour lines interconnecting locations of equal value on a two-dimensional map of a geographical area.
Algorithms for volumetric three or multi-dimensional interpolation of generic data values retrieved from three-dimensionally distributed data locations are also known. However, such known generic three-dimensional interpolation algorithms are computationally demanding in the context of real-time visualizations or frequent changes of the viewing direction or angle, and disregard any physical structure or subdivision of the volume or space considered.